Alicia I love this movie so much

GamerTab That was an excellent one.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

SnoopyStyle Alex (Alan Rickman) has just gotten out of prison for killing somebody. He's driving to Winnipeg for an unknown reason. In a roadside dinner, Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) talks her way into hitching a ride in Alex's car. Then they get into an accident and Vivienne is killed. Alex searches out her mother Linda (Sigourney Weaver) who turns out to be autistic. He decides to stay to help, and gets to know the neighbor Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss).This starts off so interestingly. I love the chemistry between Emily Hampshire and Alan Rickman. They could have got emotionally deep. When she dies, it left a huge hole in the movie. It's a hole that Sigourney Weaver cannot hope to fill. In fact, I think the movie would actually be more interesting with the three characters together. Having only Linda and Alex alone seems very empty. The emotional connection between the two is too difficult. Quite frankly, I can't even tell if Sigourney Weaver is doing it right.

tieman64 "Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man', look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump'? Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There". Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam". Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed." - Kirk Lazarus"Snow Cake" stars Sigourney Weaver as an autistic woman living in small town Canada. She's visited by Alex Hughes, played by Alan Rickman, who informs her that he is indirectly responsible for her daughter dying in a car accident. Hughes, we learn, has also recently lost his son.After a strong opening act, the film mostly becomes contrived and poorly acted, a kind of low-rent "Truly Madly Deeply" (also with Rickman) or "The Sweet Hereafter". Weaver in particular never convinces as an autistic woman and Rickman overdoes his "miserable Brit" shtick. Still, the film offers some scenic snow-swept locations and director Marc Evens gives his tale an interesting structure. Weaver's autistic character, who is shockingly cold and blunt, is incapable of feeling grief, seems as frozen as the landscape outside, whilst Rickman can't let go of his various guilts and grievances. A third character, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, is as cold as Weaver, refusing to get close to human beings. By the film's end, of course, our characters change. Rickman stops grieving, learns to toughen up, whilst Moss and Weaver show emotional cracks.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.

ejlabolton Snow Cake is a well-crafted story set convincingly in the winter landscape of Canada.Potential loose ends in the story are adequately covered. These include how the central autistic character, Linda managed initially to become pregnant and how Alex comes to terms with past "demons". Such demons are essential to the story and are revived when a truck smashes into the side of his car, killing a young hitchhiker. (Having often driven both the right and left vehicles however, I'm still intrigued as to why Alex wouldn't have taken the main impact of the fatal accident.That aside, in many ways the movie deserves the four stars' credit as shown on the DVD jacket.Alan Rickman is excellent as Alex, Carrie-Anne plays an attractive version of Maggie and Vivienne is, perhaps mercifully, released early in the film with no indication of the actress' name on the DVD jacket - all according to plan.Unfortunately, that leaves Sigourney Weaver's rendition of Linda.Weaver obviously picks up a throwaway line in the script that describes Linda as "mad" and, from here, anything, and everything, goes. Weaver's portrayal of Linda as the autistic mother is inaccurate, indulgent and emotionally lazy.Her co-star, English actor, Alan Rickman in "Something the Lord Made" for example, masterfully handles an American accent, arguably giving his central character greater deliberation and depth than may have been forthcoming from an American actor.In "Snow Cake," Weaver conveniently assumes that Canadian and American accents are either indistinguishable, not worth differentiating, too difficult to try or even beneath her elevated fame.Sadly, Weaver's portrayal subtracts at least one "star" from a good movie. Judging by this performance, she should stick to her Hollywood day job of bagging the United States and campaigning for the fall of the Bush Administration.Wot! The Bush Administration's gone! Never mind, there's still Al Gore, more gore - and, of course, there's always global warming movies.

Aberlass How often do you encounter a film that you want to watch again as soon as you have just finished watching it? How often does a film about the range of human interaction, including the 'disability' of unconventional communication, not become a hindrance to enjoyment? How often do we get the opportunity to see an eclectic gathering of some of the most iconic actors ('Alien', 'Harry Potter', 'The Matrix) of our time in an art-house, 'minority' movie about philosophical issues, instead of big-budget Hollywood-studio stereotypical scenarios? What happens if you make an intelligent, optimistic, puzzle film, encompassing every emotion, plus with a heart, but omit bias, moralising and lecturing? Is such a film possible?Wow! If you have never even thought to ask these questions you will be amazed by this film, and if you have asked these questions, then this film is the reward that other people thought them too and knew how to manifest them perfectly!Total respect to all responsible for this unique and delicious masterpiece. :)